SPRINGDALE, Ark. (BP) -- Ronnie Floyd, president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, has introduced a new quarterly magazine, PRAY.

While PRAY will seek to “encourage and equip Christians in how to pray more effectively,” Floyd noted to Baptist Press that “it is also published for men and women who lead local church prayer ministries.”

The National Day of Prayer publication "is just one tool we are using to mobilize unified public prayer for America," Floyd said in a Jan. 7 news release. Read More

CARY, N.C. (BP) – A review of this year's top stories reveals one particular topic that seems to stand out -- change. And it is presented here as a call to pray for the many churches, organizations and individual Christians involved -- that is to say, all of us.

The Southern Baptist Convention began what appears to be a season of change in 2018, signaled most noticeably by vacancies in executive leadership roles at five SBC entities. Yet, there was also a wave of other openings, transitions or announced departures in seats of influence at state and national entities, as well as local churches. Read More

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Remember back in 2015 when Syria's refugees were flooding out of the country in record numbers? Thousands died crossing a sea on what should have been a 45-minute boat journey. Rescue and relief organizations were out in record number.

In the years since, many more refugees have filled the news cycle. More than a million Rohingya people have reportedly been forced out of their homes in Myanmar, taking shelter in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand with no hope or plan for the future. Uganda is reportedly also hosting more than a million refugees from South Sudan. And refugees from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria join Syrians in their quest to somehow get beyond the reach of terrorist groups. Read More

KIGOMA, Tanzania (BP) -- At the end of a beaten-up road in Tanzania, a small hospital occasionally is filled to capacity with patients -- and then supplies begin to run thin.

"One time we didn't have any more Ketamine, a drug used for anesthesia, and we had been doing a lot of C-sections," said Larry Pepper, an International Mission Board doctor who serves at the Baptist Hospital in the town of Kigoma. See related story. "Another time we didn't have enough suture material." Read More

EAST ASIA (BP) -- Pastor Keith said when he looks across his church and identifies the highest-impact individuals, the ones who are highly evangelistic disciple-makers, they have some unifying factors. One of them is that they've spent time in East Asia.

"They come back, and their perspective on their life and on the world is completely changed," noted Keith, who serves as lead pastor of Resonate Church, a Washington State-based church with campuses in Idaho and Oregon. "They see lostness where they had just seen regularity, and they see themselves as missionaries more than when they left."

Over the past three years, more than 80 students have participated in Resonate's partnership with International Mission Board workers in the East Asia region. Students travel there to serve for 10 weeks in the summer or two weeks on Christmas break. Read More

UKRAINE (BP) -- In Ukraine, Southern Baptist missionary Russell Woodbridge often encounters people who fled their homes in the eastern part of the country when war broke out a few years ago.

And in the midst of that heartbreak, the International Mission Board worker and Ukrainian believers -- along with help from his home pastor J.D. Greear and The Summit Church -- want to help locals find a hope that transcends the uncertainty of war.

"A year and a half ago with the help of Ukrainians we started a new church plant that specifically tries to reach these people who have been displaced and lost everything," Woodbridge said. "We've seen people come to Christ and be baptized." Read More

SÃO PAULO, Brazil (BP) -- In their home in São Paulo, Brazil, Scott and Joyce Pittman have a giant map of the city plastered across their wall. It's a picture of the work still to be done in the metro area of 22 million people. And now that image is plastered across the hearts of the members of Highland Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Ky., too.

Ever since Highland Baptist began partnering with the Pittmans -- city strategy leaders with the International Mission Board -- several years ago, they haven't been able to get São Paulo out of their minds.

"When you see that map, you can see the vision Scott and Joyce have for the city," said pastor Chris Platt. "They do a great job of explaining what it will take to reach it. Then when you go out into the city and meet the people, your love for missions just comes alive. You give more, you pray more, and you think more about missions." Read More

JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) -- Daniel Tuchez remembers the day he got the call. The International Mission Board's director of Hispanic mobilization called and said, "I need you to pray about this city in Southeast Asia, because it is going to be opening up, and maybe there are opportunities,'" recalled Tuchez, who serves as pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Shaddai in Jackson, Tenn.

It was a big deal. But the call itself wasn't a surprise. In the years before, Tuchez had accompanied IMB's Jason Carlisle on many trips.

"The very big blessing is that Jason is not just challenging us to go to Latin America," said Tuchez, who is originally from Guatemala. "He wants us to be cross-cultural people who reach people in the last frontier." Read More

ANDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (BP)-- A few years ago, Steve Lakin's church budget had a line of numbers his heart couldn't reconcile. "I was meeting with the elder leadership here at the church, and as I was looking through our financial report, I saw we had a large surplus left over," said Lakin, pastor of First Baptist Church of Andersonville, Tenn.

One of the elders grinned and said he was sure God had ways in mind to spend that money. Pastor Lakin agreed. "That thought just kept reverberating in my head for the next several days," he said. And as it did, those extra dollars fueled big dreams, Read More

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (M-F) international news wire service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with four partnering bureaus (Richmond, Va.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Washington, D.C.), as well as with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers, to produce BP News.